Are You Without Power After the Storms?

Xcel Energy reported that about 514,100 Minnesotans were without power after the second intense storm cell moved through Friday night. They expected restoration times to be prolonged, taking up to several days.

Just before 9 p.m. Saturday night, Xcel Energy announced on Twitter that it had restored power to more than 400,000 customers as of 7 p.m. Workers are still working to restore power to the other 111,600 customers as soon as possible.

Storm warning sirens in some of the hardest-hit areas of Hennepin County may be without power after a series of storms in recent days, according to Hennepin County.

As more severe weather may be approaching over the next 48 hours, all metro-area residents are urged to use multiple information sources to monitor weather conditions.

Though sirens are intended to provide outdoor warning, no single warning source will work in all emergency circumstances. People should always have several methods to obtain warning information. In the Twin Cities metro area, local radio stations (830 WCCO AM, and. 91.1 MPR FM) are excellent sources; so are all of the local broadcast television stations (Channels 4,5,9 and 11). Cellular phones/smart device applications also provide good warning if cell towers are operable.

Find resources at www.weather.gov/subscribe.

As of midday Saturday, county officials estimated that at least one-fourth of cities in Hennepin County may have at least a few sirens off-line due to power issues. Actual numbers of inoperable sirens were not available. However, the county had received no reports of sirens damaged or destroyed by the storm. Many sirens in damaged areas are up and running using generator power from the facility where they are located, or using solar or battery power.

In Hennepin County and for most metro counties, sirens are sounded for tornado warnings and for straight-line winds at or above 70 MPH. Friday night’s storm had gusts of more than 60 miles per hour.

From Xcel Energy (at 7 p.m. Saturday)

We continue to make considerable progress in the restoration effort.  Since the onset of this event 514,100 customers have experienced a power outage.  As of 7 p.m. today we have restored power to 402,500 of these customers.  

We are fully dedicating all resources to restore power to the remaining 111,600 customers.

We will have approximately 400 line crews approaching a total of 1,000 workers to aid in this large restoration effort. We expect all of these crews to be working tomorrow.  In addition to the field crews, hundreds more employees are covering phones in the Call Center, dispatching the crews, managing the delivery of materials and updating communications. 

We sent a construction manager and a Control Center leader in a helicopter to patrol the distribution system. This gave the office support vital assessment information to ready job sites before a crew arrives. We replaced approximately 50 poles; with an additional 50 identified to be replaced; along with the poles numerous cross arms and wire has been installed in the field.

The estimated restoration time is still Wednesday. However, more heavy weather tonight and Sunday could impact restoration time.

The next update will be late tomorrow morning.  

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